Turning Point of the Game: Keenan Reynolds' Run

As with most close games, you do have to dig a little deep to come up with a turning point of the game and it usually happens late. Today was no exception.

There were a lot of twists and turns in Pitt's 24-21 loss to Navy on the final play of the game. You could point to a terrible punt by the Panthers' Matt Yoklic right before the final drive. You could look at a big sack by Navy to put Pitt back on their last offensive drive of the contest. There is also a large number of plays on the Midshipmen's 16-play, 91-yard drive to look at as a turning point. Instead, we're going to go with something that happened in between all of those plays: Navy quarterback Keenan Reynolds' 31-yard scamper to set the stage late in the fourth quarter.

As mentioned earlier, Navy seemed to steal momentum with a methodical 91-yard drive that ate up 8:15 of clock time. Those drives are killer and they gave Navy a one-point lead in the fourth quarter. The Panthers responded with a Tom Savage-led drive of their own to take a 21-14 lead (by the way, if anyone wants a QB change, go watch that drive and tell me how many of those throws Chad Voytik would make). That set the stage for Pitt to cut Navy off right there. Instead on a third down and five at the Pitt 33-yard line with about four minutes left gave Reynolds his chance. He used Navy's triple option to keep the ball and rumble 31 yards to the Panther 2-yard line before K'Waun Williams made the stop. That tackle only delayed the inevitable as Reynolds took the ball into the end zone on the very next play.

This game definitely leaves Panther fans into meltdown mode and for once, I really can't blame them. The only bright side is that the last time Pitt lost to Navy led to a little bit of an upswing for the school. Let's hope this does the same thing.

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